A winning combination! (Hawaiian pizza quinoa stuffed bell peppers)

February 17, 2016

I love a stuffed bell pepper. They are the best for making a low carbish meal; obviously only when you leave out the rice. I have made many iterations of stuffed bell peppers before, trying to make them taste like other dishes. One of my loves for a cheat day is a Hawaiian pizza. Something about pineapple and pizza just makes sense to me. I know not all feel that way, but I have weird taste buds that believe it!

I was playing on Pinterest as a girl is wont to do and stumbled across this recipe for Hawaiian Pizza stuffed bell peppers. Holy cow that sounded great. I was determined to make it. I was planning on having leftover ham from something that has escaped my mind, but alas that did not happen. I had some salami laying around like I always do, and that was the perfect sub.

Quinoa certainly has carbs, but it has so much protein and other good stuff that it makes it little to no carb in my book. I also added some sauteed red onion for flavor as I had it lying around. This was very easy, and easily adapted for your tastes. You could do supreme pizza and add mushrooms, black olives and sausage, plain pepperoni, all veggies, use your creativity!

The other change I made was to boil my bell peepper for a bit while I was prepping the other ingredients. I feel this cuts down ont he cooking time and makes the bell pepper easier to handle while eating. Feel free to do it the other way and tell me how it turns out! Full recipe after the montage!

The cast. I wonder how quinoa pizza crust is? Anyone?

I find quinoa is best when toasted first for a little minute.

Add water, bring to a boil then cover and turn off heat. Let it sit for about 12 minutes. Then fluff.

Decapitate your bell pepper (was that too harsh?) and deseed.

Sautee your bonus onions

Boil the bell pepper for a few minutes to get it pre cooked.

Do the necessary chopping.

Add it all to a bowl.

And toss it all around.

Stuff in decapitated bell pepper (Again, too harsh?)

Add some more cheese (there's some inside, you will see below)

Cover with foil and place in oven.

How you doin'?

Yes, I will take off my cap and stay awhile.

This was so filling I really only had half.

I told you there was cheese inside! Please ignore the errant foil!

Hawaiian Pizza stuffed bell peppers (Inspired by and adapted from The Cookie Rookie)(I made one, here's the recipe for 4)

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut the top off of each pepper. Using a knife, cut out the middle of each pepper and discard. Set the peppers and tops aside. In a large bowl, mix together quinoa, Canadian bacon, marinara sauce, mozzarella pearls, green onion, and grated parmesan. Fill each pepper with the quinoa mixture. Sprinkle with the shredded mozzarella and place the tops back on. Put the four peppers into a small square baking dish and cover with foil. Cook for 45 minutes covered, and then another 10 uncovered. You can boil your peppers while you prep for 10-15 minutes and cut your cooking time down to 30 minutes total covered.